Displaying items by tag: Adam Woodward

THE LAST GUNFIGHT

US, 2025, 98 minutes, Colour.

Jon Voight, Adam Woodward, Charlotte Vega, Eloise Lovell Anderson, Rade Serbedzija, Daniel Bernhardt, Andy Lister, Sam Symons.

Directed by James Bamford.

A succinct and accurate synopsis from the IMDb:

In a brutal underground tournament, the world's top assassins face off against a rogue crew with a deadly plan: infiltrate the competition, survive the bloodbath, and defeat the mastermind behind it.

While not particularly worth watching for itself, even those who say they enjoyed it do not praise it as a film for plotting, performances, dialogue…

The film is a useful test case for assessing sensibility in watching depictions of violence, in appreciating different sensitivities towards the visualising of violence. The audience watching this underground brutal assassins’ elimination competition, affluent, gambling recklessly, vicious in their response, callously happy, no value in any loss of human life.

In assessing a film like this, it can be said that the “what” of the action is 21^st century equivalent of gladiatorial combat and audience participation. The question of its value and sensitivities is in “how” it is presented. As one reviewer said simply remarked, it is killing for the sake of killing.

Some say they turn their minds off and just watch the action. But, there must be some moment when audiences should not turn their minds off. They are watching violence but they are watching, at times, mindless and merciless brutality – especially in the figure of a man in a clerical cassock, nicknamed The Reverend, giving absolution to victims, condemning those who don’t have the correct faith, praying with the sign of the cross. He symbolises the ugliness of what we are seeing despite the earnestness of the hero, the plotting behind the scenes, some of the characters with friendly and comic touches.

So, given the excess of the setup of the game, assassins killing assassins, graphically shown (although, of course, there are some films with more graphic gory detail), what is the value of watching this kind of action, its potential for coarsening sensitivities?

MAN WITH NO PAST 

US, 2025, 102 minutes, Colour.

Adam Woodward, Jon Voight, Marton Csokas, Charlotte Vega, Philip Winchester, Charlotte Weston, Jeff Alexander.

Directed by James Bamford.

A thriller with a difference – but whether it will appeal to audiences is another question.

Adam Woodward plays a man was lost his memory, wakes up in a hotel, is taken in by the proprietress and becomes friends with her daughter. There are local troubles, a wealthy entrepreneur wanting to build in the district, protests against the project, and a sinister character who is an advisor to the entrepreneur but has a group of folks at his disposal. His name is Soach = chaos in reverse!

While this is something of an expected narrative for the present, the hero, Ryder, involved in the exposure of the project, there are three flashbacks in which all the characters reappear in different guises.

There is World War II, 1943, the entrepreneur now a military leader with his sinister adviser, the rounding up of patriots, their executions and Ryder confronting the authorities. There is also a return to the 16^th century, and the atmosphere of witchcraft and persecutions. And, it is back to the Roman Empire with a variation on the same scenario, dangers, the Emperor, his advisers, the women in variations on the theme and Ryder as the hero.

Of particular interest for film buffs, Jon Voight is the entrepreneur as well as the authoritarian figure in the flashbacks. And, expertly sinister, Marton Chokas is chaos personified, malevolence personified.

1. The title, the focus on Ryder? The present, the various sequences in the past?
2. Science psychological fiction, possibility, credibility?
3. The present, filmed in Bulgaria, the city views, the bar, high-rise, executive offices? Neighbourhoods and slums? The World War II setting? The Roman setting? The mediaeval English setting? The musical score?
4. Setting the tone, 1943, Nazi occupation, the commander, his adviser, his henchmen, the troops, the hostages, the plea, the executions? The two sisters? Ryder, his immersion, destruction of the Germans? The return to the sequence? The commander more sympathetic, the subordinates and their business?
5. The present, Ryder awakening, not knowing who he was, the accommodation, going to the bar, the encounter with Stella, with Morgan, at home, accommodation? The psychological experiences, going back to back into the past? The constant presence, the commander, the Iago-like adviser, the ruthless henchman?
6. The Roman setting, gladiator, combat, the Emperor returning thumbs up? The English section, the Middle Ages, the defence of the poor?
7. The issue in the present, the businessman, building the city, owning the land, his advisers? Soach, the opposite of chaos? Iago-like? His presence, sinister, appearance, in each age, having the ear of the controller, his own agenda, commanding Jack? The plans, the abduction of the businessman’s daughter? Setting it in motion, the range of foot soldiers, Ryder included? Businessman and his wife? The plans?
8. The businessman, his calling off the abduction? Ryder, his reaction, the foot soldiers and their shooting, Ryder killing them all? The wounding of the businessman? The final encounter with Jack? The buildup to the final encounter with Soach?
9. The background at the bar, Morgan, her friendship, her reappearing in the past, the young girl, the businessman’s daughter and the threats, Stella, stepping in in each past scenario, friendly, supportive of Ryder? The romance?
10. Ryder, his death, the funeral, the body in the coffin, the women and the businessman present, Morgan turning around, Ryder dead, smiling – and into his future?